Recorded on Oct. 14, 1983 at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, CT

The Grateful Dead launched an official live concert series called Dick's Picks in 1993, named after the band's beloved tape vault archivist Dick Latvala, who selected his favorite shows with the band's approval and oversaw production of the subsequent releases. After Latvala's death in 1999, David Lemieux became the Dead's tape archivist and took over responsibility for the Dick's Picks releases going forward.

There are a lot of reasons why archivist Latvala anointed this show as the first '80s concert to be released in his Dick's Picks series — a heartfelt version of "Althea," the ever-ascending "Stella Blue," the almost Zappa-esque opening of "Spinach Jam" segueing into "The Other One" and even the first-ever release of the Garcia-Hunter song "Keep Your Day Job" but it's the pair of medleys that made this show Pick-worthy. Most Deadheads considered themselves lucky if they got to hear just one of the trademark medleys "Scarlet Begonias"/"Fire on the Mountain" and "Estimated Prophet"/"Eyes of the World" in a single show, but this night the Dead played them both back-to-back, each clocking in at more than a half hour (and exceptionally strong versions at that)! This 5LP set presents the complete 10/14/83 show at Hartford, and it's now on vinyl for the first time ... another great entry in the series.